How Not to Blog ~ How to get Pinned ~ Tantalising Titles ~ Interesting Images

It’s all out there and I’m enjoying reading about it all, listening to podcasts, tripping through tutorials and hopefully becoming a better blogger, but I don’t want to be a carbon copy of everyone else, running round in circles on a hamster wheel trying to keep up, because there’s gotta be more to life than chasing down every facebook like.  (Yeh, I need to reread Strategies Worth Sharing)

These posts, I want them to matter, and to change someone’s LIFE, not just waste their time, of which we truly have so little.

I want to put a spiritual twist on parenting, because it’s not just writing lists and baking custard, and washing dishes, it’s how we do those things and pray and believe and how we stand in God’s Word, how we live out our moments now, while someone else’s moment is torture in North Korea, starvation in Africa, and we need to remember them and Pray for them.

And for those around us, those family members who are lost and losing because they don’t have the LOVE JOY PEACE and HOPE of Glory.   This is a way for introvert me to start deep conversations.

I know I’m going to get some flak, because my opinion on life is a bit upside down and out there, but it needs to be . . . out there, to be read and stretch our brains a little bit further than our comfort zone.

I want to release my story to you, and it’s different to everyone else’s.  I’m not a good photographer, and as for writing down a recipe, that’s positively brain taxing.  I just want to make them up and hope for the best.

I rarely use a measuring cup, and as for making homemade beauty products or medicine, maybe I’ll get there one day, but at the moment I’m quite happy to buy the beautiful attempts that Stephen’s cousin and her swarm of 6 children whip up.

My baby sleeping tips probably aren’t going to endear you to me or either way round because they don’t seem to fit in the text book.

I want to release to you something that you can’t find anywhere else, words that God’s shown me.

So don’t get caught up trying to be the best, just be you and release your story to the world.   Sure, it can’t be unreadable but don’t try and copy someone else.  We each have our own niche.

There’s the numbers game and there’s being faithful with the few.  There’s growing learning and improving and there’s writing, and it’s like a ballerina, fumbling with new steps and being disciplined and those steps become graceful, and she is privileged to dance before more.

And if you want more help in making those steps sure and graceful, By His Grace Bloggers Facebook Group will encourage you greatly.

The steps are slow for me, and I watch those steps over and over, and my legs tangle and trip, till I finally master it.    And many of you are so kind to cheer me on, and help critique how I can be a little more in step with the music.

 

I thought for sure if I just kept writing God would just grow my blog, and He does.  Just like He sends rain to a crop; but He also allowed irrigators to be invented, and systems to be created.  Like I carry a watering can or hose to my pot plants on days when the sun beams hot.

Those systems take time and diligence to learn.  Pinterest.  Plug-ins, SEO (search engine optimisation) and I didn’t even know these terms existed when I started tipping words out onto the page.   But for those who’ve put the diligence in to learn these things, investing with their talents, they’ve seen return.

This is giving our words the freedom to soar, these boundaries of diligence and discipline.

Because as humans we love things of beauty; that cupcake swirled in icing over the sunken middle muffin pulled right from the oven.  Both equally nutritious; but only one will go to the café cake stand.  Frosting is like branding and I’ve struggled with it valiantly.

And right there in the middle of all that, if you’re not being filled you can’t pour out.  The No. 1 Christian blogging tip is spending time with God, making sure what you’re sharing is solid.   When it all gets too much, go back to that.

I heard a quote the other day that ‘most things work again if you unplug them for a bit before turning back on, including you.’

What’s your favourite Christian blogging tip?